Thursday, 26 March 2015

The Eclipse

Friday 20th March 2015

The Sun Smiled at Me, and I Smiled Back

To those who didn't know, an eclipse hit the UK early on the Friday of my Mother/Daughter week away.
When I returned , my social media build up was filled with stormy sarcasm over seeing nothing when the once in a while phenomenon occurred - we were much more fortunate.
Being further north, where the totality was stronger and the bands of clouds started off weaker, meant we could see the whole sequence of the solar shadow. Pure luck, that when mum 'point and shoot'd, that she caught a pretty good snapshot of the Eclipse, en camera.

Crescent in the flaw of the clouds.

It was surreal. My early start was rewarded with bright sunshine - only to evolve to dim/afternoon like light, and the donkey's in a near by field laying down if to say 'bed time', in the space of only a few hours. We didn't have goggles, and the nextdoor neighbours welding helmet put our feeble attempts with a colander to shame. But by sweeping glances, and light cloud dimming some of the serious shine, we had ourselves a great view. We switched between the live view outside, and the stargazing live footage, and would say you get just as good, and much more detailed coverage, through the tele. There are merits to both, so don't be disheartened. Though reportedly, 100's go on a year, it's amazing how precise your geography has to be to see it yourself. They described it as a 'finger full of shadow' scanning the landscape, which makes me think, 'the universe picks yoouuu - and you're welcome'.

It didn't quite match our prior eclipse, which bought with it the arrival of my baby brother, though each subsequent one, brings with it a signal - A 1-in-many-moons momento from that day. For that very reason, they will always make me smile. 90% totality, meant the sun smiled back this time.